Please add any links to free platforms that you may know about.
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Tapped In is a free online campus where educators may claim their own virtual office. Go to the AALP group office by typing /enterAALP (be sure chat is enabled when you sign in to TI). A good place to meet students for "office hours" through live text chat. TI runs many events and is the location of regular meetings for interest groups of K-12 and adult professionals. (You must be signed in and click >Enable Chat to use the text chat. Pull down the >Actions menu to expand the chat field.)
For help and directions on using tapped in, see http://alothman-b.com/evonline_tappedin_directions.htm Moodle is a free, opensource course management system that can be downloaded to your server or used at the Moodle.com site for a fee. It has all of the features of most CMS applications. Moodle can offer a blog and a wiki, but these may not be as full-featured as you would like. (See Moodle for Language Teaching for help for educators.)
Yahoo! Groups is free and allows the teacher to set up an email list service, a place to store photos, files, and links, and offers a database and a polling feature. While ads may feel a little overwhelming and intrusive at times, it has the advantage of keeping all discussion in one big list. The chat function is primitive, but does work. (Use Yahoo! Messenger instead--it has voice and Web cam.) The Electronic Village Online has used Yahoo! Groups successfully for the past 5 years.
Learning Times provides a space for Net meetings with voice and text chat. The group leader may take participants on a Web tour, show a Powerpoint slide show, take a poll, and use an interactive whiteboard. Recordings save the sessions and run them as if the viewer were there. Free registration for educators and many communities with specialized interests to join.
For more information and guidelines on how to use the Virtual Room (by Elluminate) at LearningTimes.org, please go to http://www.elluminate.com/support/
Click on >Edit This Page and add on at the bottom. (You must be a member and signed in to edit.)
For help and directions on using tapped in, see http://alothman-b.com/evonline_tappedin_directions.htm
For more information and guidelines on how to use the Virtual Room (by Elluminate) at LearningTimes.org, please go to http://www.elluminate.com/support/